The May sales charts are out from Diamond, and Marvel still leads, with three issues of Secret Empire hitting the Top 10 and issue #1 topping the chart. Marvel widened the gap with DC by a few percentage points in both dollars and units.

Guardians of the Galaxy tie in titles, and the “Origins” Wonder Woman collection by Greg Rucka and Nicola Scott, also made the charts, showing that movie exposure raises interest in the periodicals when readers can find them.

For DC, the lenticular ‘button” covered issues were a hit.

Rob Liefeld’s original Deadpool graphic novel was the #1 GN. However, while graphic novel sales were up in May (A five week month compared to April’s four weeks) they are still down about 9% for the year.

The drop in GN sales is a pretty universal thing and I still don’t have much of a better explanation than I did last month:

I’m not sure what’s behind the big drop in graphic novels, and people I’ve spoken to aren’t quite sure either. Last year’s April GNs included the smash Wonder Woman Earth One, and Deadpool collections were selling briskly after the movie became a phenomenon, so I’m sure that had something to do with it. Marvel’s first Star Wars trades were also big sellers. In general, I’m guessing that maybe the lackluster periodicals of 2016 are now being collected into lackluster trades? Since Diamond never released it’s year end numbers (BOO DIAMOND) we’ll never be able to make a direct comparison.

I continue to hear that the NY Times dropping its comics bestseller lists had has a negative effect on graphic novel sales across the board. While some people are equally skeptical of this theory, no one has come up with anything that’s more plausible.

Total comics and GN sales are up for the year in units, but down a bit in dollars. We’re not seeing a huge rebound here but it’s not a disaster either, despite Marvel’s seeming slide in periodicals. So just call it…middling. Middling May.

TOP COMIC BOOK PUBLISHERS

PUBLISHER

DOLLAR

SHARE

UNIT

SHARE

MARVEL COMICS

38.05%

39.91%

DC ENTERTAINMENT

27.93%

30.88%

IMAGE COMICS

10.25%

11.83%

IDW PUBLISHING

4.65%

3.78%

DARK HORSE COMICS

3.05%

2.21%

BOOM! STUDIOS

2.10%

1.74%

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

1.72%

1.85%

TITAN COMICS

1.18%

0.99%

VIZ MEDIA

1.12%

0.39%

ONI PRESS INC.

0.89%

0.59%

OTHER NON-TOP 10

9.06%

5.83%

COMPARATIVE SALES STATISTICS

DOLLARS

UNITS

MAY 2017 VS. APRIL 2017

COMICS

16.49%

17.36%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

17.13%

19.52%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

16.69%

17.53%

TOYS

52.15%

52.94%

MAY 2017 VS. MAY 2016

COMICS

10.58%

16.74%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

3.54%

13.65%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

8.31%

16.49%

TOYS

40.46%

29.34%

YEAR-TO-DATE 2017 VS. YEAR-TO-DATE 2016

COMICS

0.11%

8.89%

GRAPHIC NOVELS

-9.23%

-8.72%

TOTAL COMICS/GN

-2.92%

7.35%

TOYS

1.14%

1.10%

NEW TITLES SHIPPED

PUBLISHER

COMICS SHIPPED

GRAPHIC NOVELS SHIPPED

MAGAZINES SHIPPED

TOTAL

SHIPPED

MARVEL COMICS

99

43

0

142

DC ENTERTAINMENT

82

34

0

116

IMAGE COMICS

71

14

1

86

IDW PUBLISHING

59

15

0

74

BOOM ENTERTAINMENT

26

10

0

36

TITAN COMICS

22

7

4

33

DARK HORSE COMICS

20

12

0

32

DYNAMITE ENTERTAINMENT

23

7

0

30

ONI PRESS INC.

6

4

0

10

VIZ MEDIA

0

9

0

9

OTHER NON-TOP 10

119

203

28

350

TOP 10 COMIC BOOKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

SECRET EMPIRE #1

$4.99

MAR170901-M

MAR

2

VENOM #150

$5.99

MAR171008-M

MAR

3

BATMAN #22 LENTICULAR EDITION

$3.99

NOV169207

DC

4

THE FLASH #22 LENTICULAR EDITION

$3.99

NOV169210

DC

5

GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY: MISSION BREAKOUT #1

$4.99

MAR171072-M

MAR

6

SECRET EMPIRE #2

$4.99

MAR170910-M

MAR

7

BATMAN #23

$2.99

MAR170274-M

DC

8

SECRET EMPIRE #3

$3.99

MAR170915-M

MAR

9

ALL-NEW GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY #1

$3.99

MAR170937-M

MAR

10

THE WALKING DEAD #167 (MR)

$2.99

MAR170791

IMA

TOP 10 GRAPHIC NOVELS & TRADE PAPERBACKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

DEADPOOL: BAD BLOOD OGN HC

$24.99

DEC161086-M

MAR

2

BITCH PLANET VOLUME 2: PRESIDENT BITCH TP (MR)

$14.99

MAY160684-M

IMA

3

SAGA VOLUME 7 TP (MR)

$14.99

JAN170850

IMA

4

WONDER WOMAN VOLUME 2: YEAR ONE TP

$16.99

FEB170298

DC

5

MOONSHINE VOLUME 1 TP (MR)

$9.99

FEB170696-M

IMA

6

THE FLASH VOLUME 2: THE SPEED OF DARKNESS TP

$14.99

FEB170294

DC

7

CHAMPIONS VOLUME 1: CHANGE THE WORLD TP

$15.99

FEB170982

MAR

8

BATMAN: DETECTIVE COMICS VOLUME 2: VICTIM SYNDICATE

$16.99

FEB170293

DC

9

THE UNWORTHY THOR TP

$15.99

FEB170983

MAR

10

DOOM PATROL VOLUME 1: BRICK BY BRICK TP (MR)

$16.99

FEB170287

DC

TOP 10 BOOKS

RANK

DESCRIPTION

PRICE

ITEM CODE

VENDOR

1

HE-MAN AND THE MASTERS OF THE UNIVERSE: A CHARACTER GUIDE AND WORLD COMPENDIUM HC

Heidi MacDonald is the founder and editor in chief of The Beat. In the past, she worked for Disney, DC Comics, Fox and Publishers Weekly. She can be heard regularly on the More To Come Podcast. She likes coffee, cats and noble struggle.

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Comments

The ten-point spread between graphic novel units and dollars — which obtains again in the May figures — is really the telling point, I think. The graphic novels that are selling — and they are up for the year in units now — are down in dollars, and that comes from books either being cheaper to start with or being deep-discounted when they’re sold to retailers.

We know a LOT of the latter has been going on; it might even be enough to be the decisive factor. It also could be why retailers have reported to me better conditions than our figures suggest. The Diamond percentage changes reflect wholesale trends, not retail ones.